LONDON Ñ The Bush administration plans to propose a security
dialogue with Syria as part of a major reconciliation between the two
countries.
The proposal is expected to be offered by President George Bush when he
meets with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad. U.S. and Western diplomatic
sources said Bush wants to meet Assad next month.
"The U.S. proposal would be for a security dialogue and an exchange of
intelligence as part of the U.S.-led war against terrorism," a Western
diplomatic source said. "Syria has not yet agreed to this because it
disputes Washington's definition of terrorism."
The sources said Saudi Arabia has pressed Bush to agree to meet Assad.
Syria is a major ally of the Saudi kingdom and the sources said Riyad had
urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to raise the issue of an Assad
meeting with Bush. Blair met Assad in November in Damascus.
The United States plans to draft an agenda for a security dialogue over
the next few weeks as well as drum up support for an Assad-Bush meeting.
Over the next two weeks, several U.S. delegations are scheduled to meet
Syrian leaders in Damascus.
The delegations include members of the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives as well as congressional staffers who deal in
counterterrorism. Damascus will host such congressional leaders as Rep.
Richard Gephardt, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Sen. Richard Durbin and Sen. John
Rockefeller. Several of these representatives are members of subcommittees
on terrorism.
Syria will host U.S. envoy to the United Nations John Negroponte. The
U.S. diplomat will discuss with Damascus a range of issues relating to
Syria's entry as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
